Paxil, a commonly-prescribed antidepressant, may interfere with the breast cancer drug tamoxifen, Canadian researchers have found. The interaction appears to increase the risk the cancer could return, the study suggests.

Asking diabetics who don’t take insulin to monitor their own blood glucose levels is a waste of health resources, two new studies suggest. The studies, appearing in this week’s issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, conclude that the costs of the test strips outweigh the modest benefits that glucose monitoring provides to patients with type 2 diabetes who don’t need insulin.

A new study has raised more red flags about Avandia, a widely-used drug for patients with Type 2 diabetes, finding it carries a higher risk of heart failure and death than a similar drug. The findings prompted researchers to conclude Avandia should no longer be prescribed.

Patients taking both a popular blood-thinning drug and anti-acid medications may actually boost their risk of having a heart attack, a new study suggests. Canadian researchers have found that heart attack patients who take the blood-thinning drug clopidogrel (Plavix) have a 40 per cent greater risk of suffering another heart attack if they are also taking one of a number of proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs).